Trump’s Panama Canal threat: a distraction from real issues | Opinion
President-elect Donald Trump, who in recent weeks has mused about turning Canada into a U.S. state and about buying Greenland, is now threatening to retake the Panama Canal. I have a theory on why he may be saying these things.
Before we get to that, let me share with you what Trump said about Panama in a social media post Saturday, and at a rally in Arizona on Sunday.
In a post on his social media outlet Saturday, Trump argued that Panama is charging excessive fees for usage of the Panama Canal. He added that unless that changes, he will demand that Panama returns the canal’s management to the United States.
The waterway, which allows ships to cross between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, is key to the U.S. economy. Any interruption of shipping through the Canal, which has not happened since Panama began managing it, could drive up prices of products from China and other Asian countries to the entire U.S. coast.
The canal was mostly built by the United States in Panamanian territory in the early 1900s, and was managed by U.S. officials for decades. Following the Panama Canal Accords signed by former President Jimmy Carter in 1977, its management was handed over to Panama in 1999.
“The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous,” Trump wrote on Saturday.”If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question.”
Trump also warned that he will not allow the Canal to fall into China’s hands. While China does not control the Canal, a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Hutchinson Holdings company operates two of its ports, among others in Latin America.
Why is Trump threatening Panama?
One theory is that Trump routinely threatens other countries as a negotiation tactic. But there is not much to negotiate with Panama; the biggest problem in Panama-U.S. ties is the flow of undocumented people from other countries through Panama’s Darien jungle on their way to the United States, and Panama’s president José Raúl Mulino is successfully cooperating with the U.S. government to close that route.
A more plausible explanation may be that, like Trump’s frequent outbursts against Mexico, China or Canada, it may be a new Trump theme to keep his domestic base energized for political gain.
Populist demagogues tend to fabricate conflicts with real or imaginary enemies to drape themselves in patriotism and pose as saviors of the fatherland. Trump is no exception, according to this school of thought.
Panamanians were taken by surprise by Trump’s outburst, and are scratching their heads over what it means. Panama’s leader, Mulino, is as pro-American as they get in his part of the world. In addition to having campaigned on helping the United States stop the flow of refugees through the Darien gap, he is also a vocal critic of the leftist dictators of Venezuela and Nicaragua.
In an interview Monday, which I will expand on in the Miami Herald later this week and that will air Sunday on CNN en Español, Mulino told me that he will defend the sovereignty and independence of Panama.
“The Canal belongs to the Panamanian people and will continue to belong to the Panamanian people,” Mulino told me. “There’s no other way of seeing it than that.”
Rejecting Trump’s claims that Panama may not be able to guarantee the safe passage of vessels through the waterway, Mulino added that the Canal has never been closed except when the U.S. invaded Panama in 1989.
The Canal fees are set in public by the Panama Canal Authority, an independent government agency that has managed the Canal efficiently for more than two decades, and expanded it significantly at great cost in 2016, he said. Former U.S. diplomats in Panama tell me that, indeed, Panama has done a good job maintaining and modernizing the Canal.
My opinion: instead of creating conflicts with other countries, or with law-abiding immigrants in the United States (as when he falsely said recently that Haitians are eating cats and dogs in Ohio,) Trump should be focusing on much bigger problems in the United States.
America has a huge healthcare problem, an epidemic of mass shootings, a growing climate crisis that is causing extreme weather destruction of entire regions, and record income inequality.
Why is Trump not talking about those issues, which are much more important than the Panama Canal fees? He’s either trying to distract us from the real, important issues, or he’s trying to create conflicts to please xenophobes within his base. Either way, it’s pitiful.
Don’t miss the “Oppenheimer Presenta” TV show on Sundays at 9 pm E.T. on CNN en Español. Blog: andresoppenheimer.com
